Edith M. Thompson Manuscript, Undated

This is a five page typescript biography of a man who was called "Last of the Mountain Men." He was an Englishman who married a Shoshone girl whom he called "Jenny" because he couldn't pronounce her Indian name. This short biography, written by Edith M. Thompson, quotes frequently from his diary. He helped the early settlers, providing them with food when necessary, and acted as a guide for the Hayden survey party that explored the Teton mountains and the Yellowstone region in 1872. Because of his services, the names of Beaver Dick and Jenny are perpetuated by two lakes in the famous Jackson Hole area. Few dates are given in this account, but according to one quotation from his diary, he "went for the Mexican War" at the close of 1848, and it was in the spring of 1863 that he rode his horse over a trail through the Teton basin overlooking Jackson Hole, Wyoming.